179  
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.R. NO.              H.D. 1
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                     HOUSE  RESOLUTION


REQUESTING HAWAII'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO OBTAIN INCREASED
   FEDERAL FUNDING FOR FEDERALLY-MANDATED SPECIAL EDUCATION.



 1       WHEREAS, in 1975 Congress enacted the Individuals with
 2   Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to ensure that children with
 3   disabilities receive a free and appropriate education; and
 4   
 5       WHEREAS, Congress acknowledged that IDEA represented an
 6   unfunded federal mandate on states and public schools to ensure
 7   that children with disabilities were properly educated, and
 8   therefore committed itself in principle to fund at least 40
 9   percent of the mandate; and
10   
11       WHEREAS, however, today the federal government is funding
12   only about 12 percent of the IDEA mandate, while school
13   districts are spending, on average, one-fifth of their entire
14   budgets on IDEA-compliant special education services, much of
15   these funds going to cover the unpaid federal share of the
16   costs; and
17   
18       WHEREAS, in Hawaii, the claimed costs of special education
19   have been rapidly escalating, from $94,000,000 in FY 1991-1992
20   to over $200,000,000 in FY 1998-1999, and have resulted in a
21   dramatically increasing burden on the State's budget; and
22   
23       WHEREAS, during the same period, supplemental federal funds
24   provided by IDEA to Hawaii have increased only from about
25   $6,500,000 to $11,300,000, dropping from seven percent to about
26   five percent of the total funding for special education and
27   related services required to meet the needs of children with
28   disabilities; and
29   
30       WHEREAS, over the last several years, while dramatically
31   increasing special education funding in order to comply with
32   the federal mandate and the Felix Consent Decree, the State has
33   been forced to cut funding to many other needy state programs,
34   and has been unable to provide other relief targeted at full
35   economic revitalization; and
36   
37       WHEREAS, reducing the State's burden of funding special
38   education would allow greater flexibility in restoring some of
39   the recent funding cuts and also in focusing on other

 
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                                  H.R. NO.              H.D. 1
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1   educational needs such as reduction of class size, school
 2   construction, technology improvements, teacher training, new
 3   books and supplies, and to implement tax relief and other
 4   economic revitalization measures; now, therefore,
 5   
 6       BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the
 7   Twentieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session
 8   of 1999, that Hawaii's Congressional Delegation is urged to
 9   vigorously pursue and obtain an increase in federal funding of
10   IDEA to the level of at least 40 percent of total costs to
11   fulfill the commitment made when enacting the mandate; and
12   
13       BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
14   Resolution be transmitted to the members of Hawaii's
15   Congressional Delegation, the Governor, the Director of Health,
16   the Superintendent of education, and the Chairperson of the
17   Board of Education.